Picking Up a Deadly Hobby
by kazikamikaze24
Summary: Its the year 20xx, bugs have become immune to all forms of pesticide. With the rise of insects and vermin infesting homes and businesses, Interceptor Dolls have grown in popularity to exterminate these problems. Yet, as bugs and vermin are being killed, something else is rising unseen by officials. A hobby that, unknowingly to a certain tech worker, will enter into.


It's the year 20XX. Bugs have become immune to all pesticides. In order to kill them, a Japanese company created the bug exterminating robot, Hoihoi-san in order to keep the bug population contained for humanity. By the time the Interceptor Doll known as Hoihoi-san reached the global market, two different models of bug exterminating robots were released with their own unique features. With Combat-san and Pest-X-san now taking to the globe, a battle unlike anything the world had ever seen would take place.

A battle done through the use of Interceptor Dolls!

Chapter 1: Intro to Interceptor Dolls 101

The city of Chicago, murky with cloudy skies and noises that fought to silence its competitors, holds the Amazing Shipping warehouse within its borders. Located under an I-90 ramp, Amazing Shipping's advantage over other local providers is its swift ability to get orders out of their facility the moment they reached their facility. One of the ways that this large, antique building made of cobblestone colored bricks with thirty dock doors on the inbound and outbound sections of the facility, cut corners to save money is through keeping the dock doors open in order to provide 'AC' to its workers. Though this provided cool air for the workers, this also brought an unfortunate problem for everyone, including its customers.

Bugs and vermin.

 **"A mouse has been spotted in section J of the facility. Please be cautious of any Interceptor Dolls in the area. I repeat, a mouse is being hunted by Interceptor Dolls. So be cautious of your surrounding area in section J and nearby sections."** Looking at the screen of the laptop before him, an exhausted looking man, whose shaggy black hair tried its best to hide his exhaustion from the world, stared back at him. His red safety vest, customized to have small pouches for whatever tools he might need, shimmered with movement as he stood away from the device.

"Yeah, I don't think we can fix this power supply issue here without me taking the entire thing apart. How long do we have until it has to ship boss?" A tall, frail man looked up from the clipboard he was writing on. Taking a glance at a few pages on the clipboard, he waved it like a fan while shaking his head. Despite his dark brown skin, it was easy to spot the sweat that poured from the man.

"This Toshiba is due to leave in two hours."

"Anyway we can delay it? Blame it on traffic or something?"

"Nope," the boss shook his head. With a sigh the man walked over to the laptop, flipping it over to see the specific limitations of the device. Looking back at the shaggy haired man, the boss pulled out a thin, metal toothpick and pressed it into the power supply port. After a few attempts at doing this, the boss smiled. "Go to section P and pull from the Cage in that section the power supply box. It should have what I need to at least get the current flowing into the laptop. But watch out for the Interceptor Dolls Izzy-"

"Yeah, yeah. Watch out for those little dollies." The shaggy haired man named Izzy walked away from his department, the Technical Repair (otherwise known as either TR or the Revival Room) for damaged electronics, and looked to his left and right. Before him was a large pathway meant for forklifts to drive by unrestricted, yet a narrow, yellow path to the right of the path was meant for workers to use to traverse through the warehouse. Boxes of different kinds, from casual brown UPS shipping boxes to individualized boxes provided by different companies stacked like skyscrapers surrounded him as he walked towards his destination. Since the TR is close to section P, the walk to and from both locations should have only taken him about ten minutes, perhaps twenty tops depending on how quickly he could find the box in the Cage. Despite only being a worker at Amazing Shipping for only a few months, the paths never got blocked during his time here.

Except today, when he came across three of the bob-cut Interceptor Dolls with the elf-like appendages were trying to slash at a pair of rats with their little knives.

One of Amazing Shipping's company policies, due to its sponsorship with Xentex-Mars, made it clear that any damages that were to occur to company-owned Interceptor Dolls would come out of the paycheck of anyone caught damaging them. If the incident was an accident, then a small cut would be taken instead of the full cost of the Doll, alongside any additional option parts damaged during the incident. It would not be his first time having to repair one of these Interceptor Dolls due to one reason or another, but he knew how expensive these things could be to fully replace. The particular model in front of him, if he recalled correctly, each of these Dolls cost roughly $400, give or take a hundred depending on the version of the Doll itself.

 _'Yeah, I'm not going to risk having to pay over a grand just for a few Dolls.'_ Izzy walked to the opposite side of the path, pressing his left shoulder to the assimilated wall of boxes, and walked towards his location. Due to Amazing Shipping policies, any Interceptor Dolls that were stationed inside the warehouse were prohibited to using any guns or laser technology. Instead, they were to only use melee weapons in order to prevent any type of damages that could not easily be written off as a 'shipping and handling error' to their customers. Keeping his eyes sharp for any unusual noises, Izzy noticed a 'squeak' between a small, human-sized aisle he could barely see through. Glancing down this darkened path, darkened due to the towering boxes that hid it from the lights and cameras, made him notice that a mouse was eating through a box.

"Shit." With a sigh, Izzy walked through the aisle, quickly noticing that the aisle did not fully extend to an exit, which was a big no no for the company. Bending over the box revealed to him that the mouse had eaten through the external box and was making its entrance hole larger. Inside of the box was a small, six inch metal box with a torn plastic seal over the lid. 'Most likely mouse damage' Izzy thought as he carefully examined the box to see if there were any shipping labels he could find. If he could, then it was possible he could see if this package was meant to leave soon or not, similar to the laptop he was wasting time neglecting to fix.

There wasn't.

That alone spelled bad things for the package. Did someone tamper with this box in order to take it for themselves? If they did, then it must have been the evening shift since the boss, aside from him, were the only workers registered for the TR department, which had access to removing labels without leaving a trace of previous residue. But why-

"Target found." Words spoken above him caught his attention as an Interceptor Doll, using a propeller-styled flight pack, dove towards the mouse with a knife aimed towards it. The mouse, not expecting a swift attack, could only bump into the metal container as it took a knife to its neck. As it squeaked one last time, the container opened, smacking the Interceptor Doll off the now bleeding corpse. An Interceptor Doll, much to Izzy's confusion, stepped out of the container. It stood at the five inch mark with no clothes or hair attached to it, revealing its pale plastic with thin, dim lines that quickly went bright white. Izzy blinked, and the world went dark. Suddenly the cries and swears of coworkers throughout the facility roared through the warehouse, making him look around frantically for his cell phone. He quickly used it as a flashlight to look at the floor, finding the forcefully shut down Interceptor Dolls next to each other with a key difference. The unknown Interceptor Doll still had a glow to it. Not sure what he was to do, he put the unknown Interceptor Doll in its container and put it in one of his vest pockets. Making sure that it was secure in his vest, he grabbed the company Interceptor Doll, the box that caught his attention with the dead mouse still in it, and walked out of the aisle.

Stepping out of the aisle revealed that it wasn't just the aisle that went dark. The entire facility went dark. The Interceptor Dolls from before were frozen in place, surrounding their prey that squirmed between three knives that stuck the ground. Not knowing what to do, Izzy went towards the Cage, taking in the fact that, were it not for the dock doors being open and his cell phone having a flashlight feature, the warehouse would be eclipsed in darkness. The Cage, upon reaching it, had no one at the station, making the fenced section seem private, forbidden to enter it. The wired fence had several boxes, most likely meant to go into the Cage, surrounded the outer perimeter with sticky notes attached to the tops of them. Unsure of what to do, Izzy put the chewed box on top of another box, glancing around for some sort of answer before continuing towards the Cage. By walking towards the entrance of the Cage, Izzy realized that the only way to enter it was through a key pad. A key pad that was currently offline due to unknown circumstances.

"There you are!" Izzy turned to see the flashlight the boss held aimed at his face. Being forced to cover his face for a moment, he realized that his boss clung to a gun in his right hand. Did he expect to find him robbing the place blind? "Where have you been?"

"I had to take an alternate route to get here before everything went dark. Didn't want to get in the way of some fighting Interceptor Dolls."

"You gotta learn the names Izzy. They aren't all called Interceptor Dolls after all." Waving him along, the boss began to walk ahead with his gun being tucked into a pocket. Izzy followed four steps behind him, taking note that the boss took a different path. The primary path, which led directly to the front of the building instead of their TR department, had several other workers walking ahead of them. On the floor were frozen Interceptor Dolls, most of which had pink hair and carried brooms and plastic bags, who seemed to be cleaning messes before the blackout occurred. "See the ones with the cleaning supplies? Those are called Hoihoi-san, the flagship product of the Xentex-Mars company. Easy to make a perfect unit due to its customization through outfits and weaponry. The others are called Combat-san. They are better equipped to handle fighting than Hoihoi-san, yet lack the cute charm that makes Hoihoi-san so popular among customers. Combat-san are what normally kill the vermin and bugs due to their programmed kill record giving us the numbers of what kind of bugs are in the warehouse."

 _'The problem would not be so bad if the warehouse actually invested in an AC unit'_ were the words that Izzy wanted to say. Instead he nodded, silently pondering what kind of Interceptor Doll he found in the darkened aisle. The weight of its metal container made him recall that he had someone's package upon his person. The act alone could force the company to send him home without pay for a random amount of time. The act of opening the package and compromising its contents would surely see him fired, if not potentially charged for fees he could not pay. An image of his bank account being depleted of his savings and his worldly possessions, the few he own, being taken from him as collateral made him flinch at the idea of confessing what occurred in the hidden aisle.

"Yo, that's the last of them." The boss walked ahead of the pack of workers. Izzy noted that everyone, including the forklifting crew that consisted of twenty men, were waiting for the words of the Warehouse Manager. Other than being the man who wrote his checks, the only feature that made the man memorable was his chunky build. Izzy could recall several moments when the Warehouse Manager would waddle around the building due to keep up appearances during an audit when he would normally stay by the inbound section of the warehouse.

"Alright everyone," the Warehouse Manager's light toned voice called out, silencing the crowd of their murmuring. "Apparently one of our breakers tripped the main circuit, frying all of our systems for the time being. The company technicians are already on their way to check for any problems in their wiring, but they will be not be in for at least three hours. On top of that we still have orders to fill out while having to force oncoming inbound and outbound orders to wait while we sort through what we can and cannot handle. With circumstances as they are, I am sending about sixty percent of everyone standing here home early effective immediately. When I call your name, you are to go back to your department and wait for further instructions."

Izzy, much to his hidden happiness, was not called to stay for the day. Proceeding to write his time out (on account of the electronic punch being offline) and gathering his uneaten lunch for the day, he walked past his boss, who gave him an odd look. Was he suspicious of him? Was he acting odd in a way he did not notice? Not sure of what to do, Izzy turned to look at his boss, who did not expect the action and blinked in surprise.

"I forgot to mention this, but I found an open box in one of the aisles. It looked as if one of the Interceptor Dolls knocked it down or something, on account of the mouse hole and dead mouse inside it. I put it on a box by the Cage." The boss looked at him not with anger like Izzy expected, but worry.

"Please tell me you checked the box for baby mice." Hands were placed on Izzy's shoulders, an action that was uncommon from the boss. As soon as he shook his head negative, the boss muttered something that sounded like 'oh boy' before jogging towards the Cage. Not to miss the opportunity provided to him, Izzy left the warehouse, noticing that a majority of the inbound dock doors were manually being closed. Upon reaching his car, a slightly beat-up grey Mitsubishi Lancer, Izzy got in and left the property as normally as he could, fingering the metal container a few times until he could no longer see the warehouse in his rear view mirror.

Now that he left the warehouse, Izzy felt that he could take a breath and process what he done. Not only did he take someone's package for himself, but he lied to a superior, failed to report what occurred, and left the property with something he was not supposed to. He, in short, stole something from the facility. But did it count as stealing if there were no labels on the box? He checked every surface of the box before he took it out of the aisle, so he knew it was unmarked. Perhaps it was marked in its programming?

 _'I could check it at my place, but then there is the chance that it could transmit its signal to a GPS program for someone to find me.'_ He knew of a place he could go to get the Interceptor Doll checked out, but knew that he would stand out in the normal crowds that visit the place in mind. As he drove aimlessly for some time, Izzy realized that there was no other location that could help him in this endeavor with the security his initial thought could provide, and set his GPS for one of the worst locations in his mind.

Chinatown.

Well, to be specific Chinatown Square. Whereas tourists flock to what locals sometimes call the 'American Chinese business block' of Chicago, locals who live near Chinatown know that Chinatown Square, or the Square as people nicknamed it, have higher quality food, goods, and overall better selections than the tourist traps people get sucked into. What kept tourists from finding the Square was the exterior of the building, which was separated as a large island in the middle of a sea of paved roads. Were it not for the jade roof stylized like something seen from the feudal era, any passerby not knowing what to look for would mistake it for a brick storage room with windows surrounding the building. The Square had four entrances, one per side of the building, and walking through these entrances revealed hundreds of little shops, from bookstores and hobby shops to restaurants and everything in between, were built on top of one another. Red metal stairs led up to buildings on the second and third level of the Square with plenty of additional stairs and bridges to connect to the opposite sides if the Square.

Taking the nearest flight of stairs to the third level, where the fewest shops were used, Izzy walked to the largest shop of the level and walked in. Loud, invasive J-Pop welcomed him into the business as its customers, consisting of either nerdy men or squealing girls looking for cute outfits and accessories for their Interceptor Dolls, looked at him and a Chinese shopping bag he grabbed off the floor before entering. Within the bag was his work vest and, by extension, the metal container containing the Unknown Interceptor Doll, that he did not want anyone except one person to see. Ignoring the looks from the other customers, Izzy walked to the back of the line. Waiting gave him a moment to look around the business, seeing the various models of Hoihoi-san, each equipped with a combat knife and a sniper rifle of some type, walking along a wooden platform near the ceiling. The walls were lined with customized outfits for the various Interceptor Doll models that currently flooded the market. Though most of them were stylized for cuteness and imitation of popular designer lines, some were made for combat use such as storing more knives or coming with resistant clothing that prevented blood or bug guts from getting into the joints. Shelves filled with human sized clothes depicting Interceptor Dolls, boxed weapons, and other novelty goods filled the floor space for anyone not immediately wanting to buy something for their little bug killers.

Focusing back to the counter reminded him of the various models of Interceptor Dolls that were in production. Despite only three models currently being made, the Hoihoi-san (looking similar to the models that were frozen at the warehouse) dominated their display shelves with their variations of color, limited edition sets, and face plate expressions. The Combat-san models, which Izzy knew slightly more about due to having to repair them from time to time, were posed with weapon-centered accessories to focus more on its better combat features. The last model, the Pest-X-san, was not one he saw at the warehouse. Its main feature seemed to be that it could transform with other machines such as cars or motorcycles, but he could only speculate based on seeing the Doll posed with parts of the vehicles around its limbs. But why go over the top with these Interceptor Dolls when one should be enough for a single home? Not to mention having to purchase ammunition for the guns repeatedly.

"Thank you for your purchase. Have a nice day!" The counter, stuffed with last minute ideas such as blank face plates and discount melee weapons, had a small surface area to place goods next to the cash register. The young Asian girl at the counter smiled at him before waving him closer. "Welcome back Iz! Do you need to make a purchase or need to deliver something?" Noticing that she was looking at the bag, Izzy glanced over at a door with a poster depicting Xentex-Mars release schedule for the next three months. It took her a few seconds, but she nodded and pressed a button on the side of the register. "Don't keep her waiting."

"Thanks." Within moments Izzy stepped into the room, closing the door behind him to prevent anyone nosy from seeing something they should not. Dim lights flickered through his vision as he walked towards the foldout bed that had a steel table mere inches from itself. Metal shelves containing various parts, some of which were from Amazing Shipping, caught his attention before focusing on the woman currently working from the foldout bed. The playful expression she wore did not match the sharp look in her jade eyes. Nor did her expression match the black and white attire that looked similar to the basic outfit most Hoihoi-san come with.

"It is rather unusual to see you come around when you should still be on the clock. Called off for a change Mr. Busy Body?" Removing the container from his bag, her eyes narrowed at the sight of the unknown item before her. As soon as he placed the container on the table it opened, revealing the unknown Interceptor Doll.

"Kunihiko," the woman paused from grabbing the Interceptor Doll to stare at him. "I need you to go off the grid and check this Interceptor Doll to see if it belongs to anyone. It's…"

"Certainly unusual that's for sure." Kunihiko muttered as she picked the Interceptor Doll by its neck joint. Slowly turning the thing by various angles, she grabbed a notepad and a nearby pen to start taking notes on anything she could find unusual. When she could not find anything else to write about she moved to the container the Doll came in. The first item she pulled out of it were long black wires that might have acted as its hair if Izzy had to make a guess. Next came a pair of long ranged rifles that were connected to a backpack flight unit styled similar to a jet. The rifles, as were the flight binders, were as long as the unknown Interceptor Doll was tall, making him wonder how back heavy this flight unit would be. After writing some notes, she pulled out what looked to be a standard charger base, a black jumpsuit with silver shackles around its wrist and ankles, and a USB drive.

Within second Kunihiko pulled from the floor a stand that had an old Dell computer tower with its outer casing exposed. Attached to it was a tethered charging base meant for the Interceptor Dolls, though unlike the standard charging bases this one had red LED lights glowing along the outer edges. When the unknown Interceptor Doll was placed on the stand the LED lights changed to green, immediately prompting for Kunihiko to place two Android tablets on the table.

"Immediately I can tell that this Interceptor Doll is unmarked by anyone. See here on your screen? The section I have highlighted should have either Mars, Xentex, Xentex-Mars, or Kinryu to show which company made the damn thing." Instead of any of those names being in the highlighted section, only a blank could be seen. The coding that Kunihiko bounced around on her tablet mimicked on his, making it hard for Izzy to keep up with her fast pace of analyzing. He tried to make note of anything of importance, but found himself lost in rhythm. "Normally this is not a reason to raise alarms on it not having a mark. Most prototype models remain unmarked in the event that they do not pass requirements or move on to the next stage of production. What I want to know, yet cannot seem to find, is who the original programmer is. Every programmer leaves their mark on anything they create with companies this big. Not only is it protocol in the event that a program or two make the unit malfunction, but it helps other companies know who to contact if they need to call in a warranty or something of the sort. But this is a blank slate right here, and that's not good. How did you find this thing?"

"I found it in a hidden aisle at work." Izzy scratched the back of his head. Unsure of what to tell her, let alone if she would believe him since he was unsure of what really happened in those split seconds he blinked. "I noticed that a mouse was going to town on its box, which was completely unmarked by any shipping label." A whistle from Kunihiko made him pause.

"A completely unmarked, unknown Interceptor Doll hidden away in an aisle that should not have existed. Wait, how do you mean a hidden aisle?"

"There were boxes blocking the aisle from being accessed from the opposite side. This left a small, human sized passage to grab the box from one direction, which was the main path towards the inbound section."

"Were you seen going down the aisle?"

"Possibly by the camera systems, but the strangest thing happened today at work. Something fried the cameras. Actually, something tripped the breakers to the point of frying the systems at work."

"Hence why you got out early and, knowing that you found an unknown Interceptor Doll that more than likely was tied to the accident, took it straight here to see what you could find huh?" A whistle escaped from her once again as she flicked the screen of her tablet to a different section of code. This time Izzy could recognize the information on his screen as a log chart of activity from the Interceptor Doll.

00:00 Awoke from Slumber

00:01 Interceptor Doll threat detected

00:02 EMP

00:05 Shut Down

"I can see that you're confused about what it did during the two seconds it was active. What you are about to be looking at in a second is its primary combat specs when no attachments are included on this Interceptor Doll. Fortunately for us this unit has everything listed to its primary combat capabilities, but this is some next level tech. This thing is capable of releasing EMP to fry nearby electronics. Do you realize what you have here?" Izzy shook his head. He never owned an Interceptor Doll, so things primarily relating to them weren't of his interest. If it were up to him, he would not work on any of the Combat-san units at work. "God you are a piece of work. You have something that can shut down other Interceptor Dolls."

"That is good for me how?" A loud scream made him turn to the way he came in. Was that scream one of joy or surprise? A scoff from Kunihiko told him otherwise, and noticed that she walked up to the door.

"Stay here. It looks like someone does not understand the meaning of 'no sale' around here." With nothing else to do with Kunihiko leaving the room, Izzy decided he would examine the technical detail of the unknown Interceptor Doll. Since he was able to read the code at his own pace, he gathered more information than he would have had he tried to keep up with Kunihiko's crazy pace. Whoever made this thing wanted it to work for long, extensive periods of time, Izzy realized, as he found that its minimum battery life was three hundred and thirty six hours. That was two weeks of battery life, nearly twice as much as the Combat-san models! As he looked over the data, several things became apparent to him about this unknown model.

For one, this thing's data kept on referencing its long range capabilities with its additional backpack, which kept on referencing it as the Rezel Type-C Cannon Unit, and its use of laser technology to eradicate enemies. This made him pause for a moment due to Amazing Shipping forbidding the use of laser attachments of any kind on the Interceptor Dolls due to how often they damaged products. Was it possible that this model came from Japan? It would make sense due to Japan having little care for the use of laser technology. The fact that this unit seemed to be made for long range combat got him to thinking of what short range weapon would work for the unit while not interfering with its long range capabilities. Something like the mace weapon, something he noticed while waiting in line earlier, would not work.

Its 'hair', which was attached to the head via a headphone jack with a locking mechanism, could do something called 'Drain' to other Interceptor Dolls and electrical ports. The electrical port mechanism made sense, as it would provide an additional source of gathering energy from any nearby area if it were to be running low (which was unlikely) at any given point. Could this Doll drain the energy from other Dolls? If so, then that made sense as to how it could have so much battery life as its minimum instead of a maximum. He tried to look through the data to see what kind of battery was installed into the unit, but could not find that specific piece of information.

Instead, what he found were blank sections of data meant to represent who owned the Interceptor Doll. The name of its rightful owner or the company that owned it should have been there, yet they were nowhere to be found. So what was to happen to this Interceptor Doll? Izzy tried to think of what happened to unclaimed Interceptor Dolls, on account of several workers who preferred to bring their own custom equipped Interceptor Dolls instead of relying on the company stock and got fired or left them before quitting, and what happened to them. The highly efficient ones would get their data wiped before being registered as a company product, the low quality would be saved for parts, and the accessories were left alone until needed.

 _'Would I leave this thing to be claimed by someone wanting it for themselves?_ ' Thinking back on Kunihiko's reaction to the Interceptor Doll made it clear that it was going to be highly valuable. So valuable, in fact, that she might even offer to buy it from him and take it off his hands. But what made the damn thing valuable in the first place was what bothered him. Was its unknown status in the world, potentially making it a limited, one of a kind product? Its unusual ability to produce an EMP at will? Why go through the hassle of making such a dangerous product? He wasn't sure where the thought snuck through his head. Perhaps it occurred during his search of data or perhaps when he left the warehouse with the Interceptor Doll in his vest pocket. But, after gathering its confidence, the thought made itself known to him.

 _'Why not keep it as your own?'_ The thought spoke out. Izzy didn't care about investing in Interceptor Dolls like some of his coworkers or the people in the shop. The idea of having a mechanical toy killing bugs for him seemed stupid since he could just bait the bugs with traps. Apple vinegar and dish soap traps still worked to some degree after all. _'You have Kunihiko's tech in front of you, and know that filling in the blanks with basic registry data won't take you more than a minute. Two tops.'_

 _'But why would I own it? I would not have a purpose for the damn thing.'_

 _'Then to keep it away from someone wanting to merely profit from it instead of appreciating it for what it was made for?'_ Would he actually appreciate it? Of course not! Again, he wanted to tell the voice, he did not care about the idea of investing in Interceptor Dolls, but realized that he was just talking to himself. Yet he also felt something he neglected to confront during his rush to get here and talk to Kunihiko.

His sense of responsibility.

If he couldn't actually send the Interceptor Doll out to its owner, nor could he report the product to Amazing Shipping since it had no label, then it fell on him to take responsibility for the missing product.

 _'And what better way to take responsibility than by owning it?'_ Switching his tablet for Kunihiko's, he pulled out a pen from his pocket, mentally thanking the TR department for having pens with the rubber tips, and typed in the necessary information to register it as his own. Not knowing what kind of model the Interceptor Doll truly was, he placed it under the Hoihoi-san line since that line of actually had long range attachments that the Kinryu did not make. By the time he was done registering the information to the Interceptor Doll, he realized that a minute passed from him switching the tablets and two minutes passed from Kunihiko leaving the room. Not having a minute to spare, Izzy disconnected the Interceptor Doll from the offline server, erasing the specs from her system, and quickly collected the accessories back in the tin. With a quick glance to ensure he left nothing behind, he stood up and left the room.

And found himself walking straight into a shouting match between a customer in a brown suit and Kunihiko, who looked extremely displeased with the suited man. Keeping an eye on the counter as he left, he was glad that neither Kunihiko nor the cashier noticed him leave. At least, until he realized that he might have stayed to see if he could have bought a melee weapon for his Interceptor Doll and, before he could continue his train of thought, he paused. He now owned an Interceptor Doll and was thinking of buying an accessory for it.

 _'Maybe there is a subtle hypnotism to implant aggressive purchases to its user.'_

* * *

Fortunately for Xentex-Mars, or whoever actually created the unknown Interceptor Doll, he went to a less popular shop in the Square to buy a few melee weapons for his Interceptor Doll. The use of using possessive pronouns for talking about his very own Interceptor Doll struck him as foreign. A feeling he would need to get over quickly if someone from work spotted him buying something at one of the shops either in the Square or in the city. Perhaps it would be best to buy things online or through Amazing Shipping from here on out? Being so new at buying combat for an Interceptor Doll, he stuck to buying some discounted weapons from the shop. The weapons being a pack of five short blade combat knives, two katana, and a pair of spiked knuckles. Being at the shop reminded him of two things he would look into tomorrow at work. The first being that his job still had spare weapons from other Interceptor Dolls that, if they weren't listed in the Amazing Shipping registry as part of company stock, then he could take it without it being an issue. Though it would not be for quite some time, the idea of getting some sort of laser sword, if those existed as of yet, might complement the Interceptor Doll's style of combat based on its data. If laser technology was its primary use, then making it fight with normal material might somehow mess with it.

Then again he was unsure if that train of thought was him overthinking things or not. This is his first Interceptor Doll after all. Thankfully, or dreadfully depending on how he thought on it, nothing prevented him from getting home to the apartment he lived. The lack of distractions made him think about work tomorrow, the possibility of getting caught in what occurred earlier in the day, and the idea of somehow becoming obsessive with the Interceptor Dolls to the point of having them all. He did not have that sort of income to blow on tiny robots that gave cell phones and computers a run for their money in terms of cost of buying and upkeep. The idea of losing so much money made him quickly park his car by the dumpster (his normal spot since no one wanted to risk trash being spilled on their car), grabbed his stuff, and locked the car before rushing to the outdoor stairs that led to his floor. Unlike normal apartments that relied on walking into the building and used an elevator of an indoor stairwell to reach the necessary floor, the apartment he lived in required the user to enter through one black spiral staircase that led to each floor. Thankfully the spiral staircase is wide enough for two people to pass by each other, but the design choice the architect made was a weird one.

 _'Though the landlord having a perfectly normal staircase on the opposite side of the building only meant for large furniture was something else entirely different.'_ The doors leading into the building for that particular staircase were locked from the inside by a deadbolt lock. This meant that only the landlord could open those particular doors, and without his permission to open them, anyone caught opening them were either yelled at or fined for 'breaking the door' or something similar. Walking up the spiral stairs reminded Izzy that the few tenants he saw on average were quite quirky in their own way. Sometimes he spotted an elderly couple who listened to the radio outside whenever it rained. Other times he saw someone either painting or sketching something across the street. Thankfully he didn't spot anyone as he ascended to his floor, entering the side door and walked down the narrow, silent hallway. The bright lighting reminded him that the landlord posted a memo about proceeding to replacing light bulbs throughout the apartment complex, and realized that he would not have to worry about bumping into the landlord any time soon.

Upon reaching his apartment, which was at the end of the hall by the locked door of the complex, he noticed a sheet of paper slipped under his door and sighed. Only one person bothered to slip him sheets of paper in the complex. A person who he never met due to their clashing schedules, but was rather infamous. Opening his door, Izzy bent down to look over the sheet of paper and crumbled it moments later. It was a status report of how many bugs 'could potentially be existing in his apartment' and how he should 'invest in the proper means of taking care of invasive critters.' It was not as if he didn't invest in things to catch bugs (sticky fly traps, apple vinegar traps, and glue traps were the most common traps he invested in) whenever he could afford to.

"Well I do have a new investment to use." With the kitchen existing past his entrance, he knew there would be no place to set up the Interceptor Doll in it due to the ports being hidden behind the appliances. Walking past the kitchen, he glanced at his bedroom, which made him think of the potential damage that could be done by the Interceptor Doll. Sighing to himself as he sat down on his couch, Izzy glanced to the left, noticing his small stand that held up a white owl lamp. Following its power strip to its outlet, an open port stared at him with curiosity, as if asking him would he try to find another spot. Izzy pulled the metal container from its bag, placing the Interceptor Doll on the middle of the table, surrounding it with its included accessories, he plugged in the charging base to the wall. When he looked over the included accessories for a second time, he recalled that he bought some short range weapons for the Interceptor Doll. Part of him thought of trying to activate the Interceptor Doll to see how it would react to different weapons, but quickly decided against it. It needed to charge and activating it early might damage it. Placing it on its charger, Izzy stood and walked into his room to relax, soon forgetting about the unknown Interceptor Doll.

-Author Note-

Hello readers, reviewers, and followers! This is a story meant to bring more attention to the VERY bare bones Ichigeki Sacchu! HoiHoi-san category. Unfortunately there isn't an actual category up yet (something which I hope to change very soon), so this will be in the miscellaneous section for now until the Fanfiction Support crew can pull through again. I actually have quite a number of one-shots and potential multi chapter stories made for this category. It took a while to find them, but as I read them over I decided to try my hand at a mostly original piece with a sense of 'evolution' to the use of Interceptor Dolls. It should not be too long to see more random uploads for stories for this category, so please be patient with me while I get those off my documents folder before working on the 'requested' updates.

Yes, I fully acknowledge that my more popular stories have been ignored due to my interest to bringing attention to smaller communities. I have something in the work for _The Ninja Project_ , _Pokemon: Table Top Edition_ , _To Try Something On My Own_ , _When Two Angels of A Different Breed Meet_ , and some crossover ideas. So be on the lookout for what I upload over the next month or so. I do have several new ideas in the works as well, so give those a try too.

With that said, here is a fun fact about the chapter. The Rezel Type-C backpack is an actual product on the Rezel Type-C mobile suit from the Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn RE:0096. I got the inspiration to include the backpack to the Interceptor Doll while posing that particular High Grade kit, pondering the idea of a Hoihoi-san with that flight pack before flipping through the Ichigeki Sacchu manga and noticed that they mention a flight pack yet never introduced any specific details about them. Does this mean that, since I used a Gundam reference, that I will be adding more to this story? Yes, but also from other series as well. Stuff such as Medabots, Mega Man, and other mecha-focused series might be used as inspiration for future Interceptor Dolls.

But anyway, until next time everyone, stay golden!

Kazikamikaze24


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